“That was to start, not to arrive. Did you really suppose I cared to find myself at Barton Towers?”
“I don’t know. I know I do. I expect to pick up a great many hints, after what Sir Peter said about the place.”
“All in good time,” he said crossly. “What I want to say, if you will only give me the chance to speak— Good gracious! what is it now?”
“Isn’t there something wrong with the wheel?”
“Nothing at all. What do you suppose I’m going to say, that you won’t listen?”
Claudia called all her dignity to her aid, and turned an offended face upon him.
“Pray go on. I am quite ready to listen.”
“Well, it’s only this. I think it hard that you should shut me out of your hopes and ambitions so determinedly as you have been doing lately. I had flattered myself that you, above all women, were fair enough not to visit on an unfortunate man’s head his awkward carrying out of a good intention.”
“Oh,” she cried rashly, “did you suppose—”
And then she yet more rashly stopped, for it was a hundred times worse to let him guess at the real reason for her coldness.